The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1886, Page 3

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The Lutheran Pioneer.

Too Late!

. The Jate Rev. L. Harms relates the
following warning incidents:

. Tat one time stood by the dying-bed
of a man.who had not attended church
for ten years and had not come to the
Lord's Supper for twenty years. He
now lay trembling upon’ his bed. I
spoke to him for some time, but his
only reply to all that I said was: Ir ts
Too LATE. I knelt down and prayed
for his poor soul, and when I had said
Amen, he turned towards the wall and
whispered: It is too late; it is too late.
A half an hour Jater he was a corpse.
It is too late! These words have ever
since been ringing in my ears and I
would sound, the note of warning for all
those who despise’ the preaching of
God’s Word and the Lord's Sacrament.

At another time I saw a man weeping
in church. He had attended the ser-
vices and had come to the Lord’s Sup-
per regularly. He told me that he had
been a hypocrite and that he had now

ished my look at Harry's, ‘‘Now, see
mine!’’? She unfolded the tissue-paper
from it, and there it was, just as fresh
and fair and uninjured as when it came
out of the shop.

“‘’ve never had it out of the drawer
but once,”’ said Miss Minnie, ‘‘and that
was to show to somebody.”’

“Minnie,” said I, ‘‘if your father
were away from home, and should send
you a letter, telling you just what he
wanted you to do and be, would it be
good treatment never to break the seal,
and to lay it in a drawer unread?
Would it not be better to take it out
every day and to read it over and over,
trying each time toobey its injunctions?”

‘‘Yes,’”’ said Minnie, blushing, as she
began to see my meaning.

“This is God’s letter to you, my
love. Like the man who folded away
his talent in a napkin, you have folded
up your precious Bible. Hereafter,
my child, use it as God wants you to.®
‘Search the Scriptures, for in them ye
think ye have eternal life, and they are

come to see that his going to church and
the Lord’s Supper without faith in the
heart would do him no good, and that there
must be a change. But he had a trial in
court which must be brought to an end and he
had a journey to make and after his return
home from that journey he would surely at-
tend to the matter. I warned him earnestly
r and reminded him of the word of the Holy

Spirit: ‘‘To-Day if ye will hear his voice,

they which testify of me’.”’—C. W.

———_— ——- oa oe

God calling yet! |
| - How it is Done.

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; od calling yet !—and shall I never hearken,

eo) But still earth’s witcheries my spirit darken ?
G This passing life, these passing joys, all flying,
And still my soul in dreamy slumbers lying!

I remember a man who had been a Christian
for two years, but who was bemoaning his hard
and sinful heart. Isaid to him one day: ‘‘Did
you ever know a sinner who had not a hard
heart?”

2. God calling yet /—and I not yet arising,
So long His loving, faithful voice despising,
So coldly His unwearied care repaying,—

PeGHEED not eben one Bue ely Mb He calls me still, and still I am delaying! “No,” he said, “but mine is getting n0
ing was in vain. Two days later this man was better.”

3. God calling yet !—loud at my door is knocking,
And I my heart, my ear, still firmer locking;
He still is ready, willing to receive me,

Is waiting now, but ah! He soon may leave me.

taken sick with typhoid fever. When I came
to see him, he was unconscious and raving.
He did not understand what I said, he did not
hear my prayer. I, however, heard him every
now and then utter those terrible words in the
midst of his raving: Now Iv IS TOO LATE.
Again these words pierced the very marrow of
my bones and I would sound the note of warn-
ing for all those who push off their conversion
from day to day.

The voice of God is saying: ‘Behold, Now
is the accepted time; behold, Now is the day
of salvation’? (2 Cor. 6, 2). Listen to the
voice of Jesus: ‘Behold, I stand at the door
and knock.’ And the Holy Spirit says: ‘‘To-
Day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your

hearts”’ (Heb. 3, 7).

————>—-oa oe om

LT arose and closed all the shutters, and made
the room quite dark.

“‘ Why do you do that?’’ he asked.

“J want to teach you how to drive away the
darkness,” I said; so I handed him a long
broom and a duster. ‘‘Now I want you to
sweep out the darkness.”

ay can't,” he said.

“Can't you if you try very hard? Will no
amount of physical force do it?’

“Certainly not,’’ he said.

Then I opened the shutters and the room
was beautifully illuminated. ‘‘So you see that,
if you want the darkness and dreadings of your
heart to be dispelled, it is not by any amount
of effort of your own, but by letting in the
light of the Sun of Righteousness. But now
that we have such a beautiful light in the
room, we may close the shutters again; we
shall want no more, I suppose for a month,’’~
I said. =

‘What do you mean?”’

“‘T mean that we are not to expect to have
a stock of grace laid up, on which we may
draw; but that, if we would continue in the
light, we must keep looking up to the Sun,
and receiving his blessed rays into our souls.”

; — Selected.

4. God calling yet /—and [ no answer giving;
I dread His yoke, and am in bondage living;
Too long I linger, but not yet forsaken,
He calls me still; O my poor heart awaken!

5. God calling yet /—I can no longer tarry,
Nor to my God a heart divided carry ;
Now, vain and giddy world, your spells are
. broken!
Sweeter than all, the voice of God has spoken!

G. Tersteegen.

————+ +o or

Minnie’s New Year’s Gift.

“Mother gave me a Bible last New Year's,”
said a little girl, complacently, “and Aunt
Lou gave Cousin Harry one at the same time.
Just look at them now, and see the difference!”

Harry’s was worn. Its gilt edges were tar-
nished, and the newness was gone from the
cover, but it looked as if it had been read very
often. Here and there I saw pencilmarks
near favorite verses, and in one or two places
it seemed as if tears might have fallen. His
Bible had evidently been very precious to him.

Minnie said triumphantly, after I had fin-

Wuatsorver is good for God’s children,
they shall have it, for all is theirs to further
them to heaven. If therefore, poverty be
good, they shall have it; if disgrace be goad,
they shall have it; if crosses be good, they
shall have them; if misery be good, they shall
have that; for all is ours to serve for our main
good.

—_—_ oa or —__
: SEPARATION unto Christ is the only true way
of being separated from this world.